Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has no intention of leaving Red Bull any time soon, affirming that his hunger has not died down in the 17 years he has been in charge of the Austrian side.
Horner became Red Bull boss when the energy drinks brand took over from the Jaguar team in 2005 after leaving his Arden F3000 team at the end of 2004.
The Briton competed in Arden’s first two seasons in the series in 1997 and 1998, before becoming team principal in 1999.
He led the side to the teams’ title in three consecutive seasons between 2002 and 2004, with Bjorn Wirdheim Vitantonio Liuzzi claiming the drivers’ titles in ’03 and ’04 respectively.
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Jaguar had managed 39 points in five seasons with a combination of Eddie Irvine, Pedro de la Rosa, the late Justin Wilson, Mark Webber and Christian Klien.
The latter lined up alongside David Coulthard for the 2005 season as the pair guided the Austrian side to seventh in the Constructors’ Standings.
They repeated that result a year later after Coulthard secured the first podium for the Milton Keynes-based team in Monaco.
Webber joined in 2007 as they climbed up to fifth, before they slipped back to seventh a year later, with Coulthard calling time on his Formula 1 career at the end of the 2008 season.
The first win came at the Chinese Grand Prix in 2009 when new signing Sebastian Vettel led home Webber for a one-two, and the pair would add another five victories to the tally that season.
Then came the titles; Vettel would go on to take 38 wins in total for the Bulls, securing four consecutive crowns between 2010 and 2013, with Webber taking nine victories before signing off at the end of 2013.
The turn of the turbo hybrid era was not kind to the four-time champions, and they lost Vettel to Ferrari, with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen winning 12 races between them from 2014 to 2018 during Mercedes’ period of dominance.
Five wins followed from the Dutchman in 2019 and 2020 after Ricciardo left for Renault, and the 24-year-old claimed 10 victories and 18 podiums in an astonishing season as he beat Sir Lewis Hamilton to the world title, breaking Mercedes’ seven-year stronghold on the drivers’ title.
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Horner has been at the helm to oversee the entire journey, and he is not done yet.
“This is my 18th season in charge of the team and I’m just as motivated today as I was on the first day that I attended the first race back in 2005,” he told GPFans.
“It’s always about the next race, the next event, the next season and you’re always looking forward in this sport, you never get time to look backwards.”
The 48-year-old then dropped a hint that Porsche will be supplying his team with engines from 2026.
“It’s exciting times, it feels like an exciting time for the team as well with the power unit coming on stream, so I’m fully motivated,” added Horner.
Red Bull currently lead Ferrari by 97 points in the Constructors’ Standings in 2022 having taken nine wins between Verstappen and Sergio Perez, with the Dutchman 80 clear of Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ battle.